Canada announces upcoming national youth training camps

The Canadian Soccer Association announced on Monday that both Canada’s U-17 and U-20 women’s national teams will hold training camps over the next month. Five Whitecaps FC Girls Elite players have been named to Canada’s U-17 women’s training camp roster, while four Whitecaps FC women’s players have been named to Canada’s U-20 women’s squad.

Included in head coach Bryan Rosenfeld’s Canadian U-17 team are Girls Elite defender Aman Shergill, midfielders Jamine Dhanda,Jasmine Mander and Elissa Neff, and striker Kajal Parmar. Rosenfeld’s squad will take part in a 10-day training camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from January 31 until February 9. As part of the camp, Canada will face Germany in a Women's U-17 international match this coming Saturday, February 4.

Rosenfeld will use the camp to prepare his team for the coming 2012 CONCACAF Women's Under-17 Championship, which will run from May 2 to 13 in Ciudad, Guatemala. Canada is the reigning CONCACAF Under-17 champions, having won the last biennial tournament in 2010. The eight-team championship will qualify three teams to the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup later this year. The U-17 tournaments feature players born 1995 or later.

"We are getting closer to our CONCACAF qualifiers and we are confident that our squad is working in the right direction," said Rosenfeld, who called in 22 players for the February camp. "We have a good core group of players, but we will still have at least one more camp to look at some players."

On Canada’s U-20 women’s team, newly-appointed head coach Andrew Olivieri has included four players from the 2011 Whitecaps FC women’s team: defender Nicole Setterlund, midfielders Jaclyn Sawicki and Erin Uchacz, and striker Jenna Richardson. Olivieri’s squad will begin its preparations on February 13 for the upcoming 2012 CONCACAF Women's Under-20 Championship from March 1 to 11 in Panama City, Panama. The team will hold an extended camp in San José, Costa Rica before heading to Panama two weeks later on February 27. As part of the preparations, Canada will face Costa Rica's "B" side as well as club champions Arsenal Coronado. (Costa Rica did not qualify for this year's Under-20 competition).

"It will be exciting to see the future of our women's program as we work towards the Women's Under-20 World Cup Qualification," said coach Olivieri. "This is the type of highly competitive environment our players must perform in if they wish to earn regular caps for our senior women's team".